Alternative distribution to optical disks : SSD, cards, and download*

Optical is back

http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20140309-26116.html

 

They will create very long term patents that are over 100-year-old, and the Brits are taking over the world again.
I am not sure this will end well.

 

9nm. That's some frickin' accurate head control needed there! I presume seek times will be increased, so probably not a real-time disc format but good for distribution. As BRD isn't near its limits yet, this has no bearing on consoles, and in the grand future, by the time games are hundreds of GB in size, I'm sure we'll be streaming them.

 

This would store hundreds of TB. We would be back to the times were a CD-ROM was incredibly bigger than floppies, cartridges and even most HDD.

But with such a disc, even if it can turn into industrial reality.. How much would a master disc cost? How many weeks will it take to read it (a full daily backup of a simple RAID of HDDs is impossible already)

It's on the order of storing every game ever released on a console. Thought experiment : if an AAA game weighs on average 100GB and has a $100 million budget, this disc can store ten thousand of them. That's a trillion dollars worth of games.

 

Australians, mate, not Brits!

These kinda of densities on optical media have been possible for a long time but there's always a catch that is never mentioned in the initial reports, like the lasers costing £5,000 each or needing to be re-calibrated every 30 days, or a new form of media that explodes in sunlight.

I've lost track of the number of imminent optical disc revolution stories over the past fifteen years

 

China doesn't recognize international patents so no the world won't be taken over by Aussies...

BTW the main researcher who discovered this new way of storing/reading data is Chinese...

 

I think you missed the joke.

 

Probably Whooosh. Anyway, orcs to eviscerate

 

It sounds like science fiction, and truthfully another Optical solution we will never see, but maybe, just maybe it´s different this time.

With 1000TB they could go crazy on redundant data to speed up seek times and MTBF on reads

 

I hadn't actually noticed the supposed capacity. You know how everything becomes either MB of GB because they're the realm of general operation, and TBs are only single digits. 1000 TB per disc sounds more like a typo than actual plan... I suppose in terms of pit area though, they could mask the laser to 1/1000th of the original spec, if we count a CD as having 1 GB capacity. I understand it actually has a way load more capacity but data integrity swallows up a massive portion of the theoretical maximum.

 

New update to San Andreas removes content from the Steam Version. I hope they are able to provide better license terms in the future. Imagine loading a game 5 years after purchase with half the music still playable.. SIGH!
Even if you buy a Disc based version there is nothing stopping them from patching content out, and on the consoles it is impossible to stop updates from happening.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...e-removes-songs-makes-some-saves-incompatible

*Maybe shiftys thread is more Suitable for this.

 

Don't worry that won't happen. Their licensing rights seem to have expired but thats only problematic for new sales not past sales.

 

But it IS problematic for people owning GTASA on Steam. All buyers (even pre-update) get updated to the new version, losing all the songs. With VC, they didn't do this.

Also, you CAN ignore patches on consoles, tkf.

 

The new halo game (a game that will make millions in profit) once you install it you the have to download an additional 15gb why?
If there was no 15gb download the game would have to ship on 2 disc's and that would have eaten into their profits.
They think its acceptable to ship an incomplete product because it saves them money.

 

I thought the 15Gb was a patch? I.e, it's replacing/updating data on the disc. Rather than additional content not included on the disc or in the initial download?

Can anybody confirm the install size after installing from disc and after the patch download and installs?

 

Ha, fair enough! Brutally honest, at least!

But I'm not sure why two disc would ruin the experience, doesn't everything install to HDD anyway?

 

Of course its complete bollux,

#1
insert discB - copy 15gb to the HDD
insert discA - install game & play

vs

#2
insert discA - install game
download 15gb from the internet to the HDD

theyre the same in the end, the only difference is #2 is most likely going to take a lot longer before you can play the game, theyve done it to save a few cents I assume

 

Is there no way to avoid updating on the PC? Plus, the terms of their licensing rights to distribute songs in their games shouldn't be used to strip songs from games already owned by the user. That sets an ugly precedent unfriendly to consumers. Its literally no different than buying a digital movie only to have its sound track ripped out five years later by the digital store where you purchased it. Remember, when you purchased GTASA, you became the license holder of the game and the music content. Rockstar shouldn't be able to stomp on your rights as a license holder. Unless auto update is an option, where Rockstar can construes you turning the option on as permission, it shouldn't be legal for them to do this.

 

Yeah, this raises very interesting consumer rights/law issues.

I doubt that Rockstar, when negotiating the licences for GTA San Andreas, thought they'd still be selling the title after ten years. Hopefully they are wiser to this now and have negotiated much longer, if not indefinite, licences for GTA V.